10. Suspect

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Previously on Murder on Songbird Road, I received an email approving my request for surveillance footage from Huck's gas station.

What we were told that she did is exactly what it appears that she's doing. Does that mean that she didn't do it? Not necessarily in and of itself. Does it mean that I don't think there's any way in hell that that's what she was disposing of? There absolutely, one hundred percent like I would die on that hill.

The prosecution contends this was after the murder. She would have been covered with bloody scratches and bleeding hands. Why would she have been out and about in a T shirt? My name is Katie, and your relationship to Julie.

I would consider her best friend. She didn't like blood, she didn't like violence.

Having murderers.

You're going to be talking about a man nine out.

Of fun time, at least in the United States.

We want to address a misconception that many people had or continue to have, regarding what was actually found at Hucks as opposed to the Southern Illinois Regional Landfill.

It's the thing that upsets me the most about this entire trial, that any of this evidence was admissible in any way, shape or form.

I was removed from the courtroom because I was threatening the jury by sitting in the front.

Row, the all white jury. They were intimidated because I'm black.

I couldn't do this.

Renee High Tower Jason Flomp Chicago based attorney Kathleen Zelner is one of the most formidable forces in wrongful conviction advocacy.

I'll flip the bill for that, because if anyone can get Julie out, it's her.

I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is murder on Songbird Road. For over a year, Bob Matta and I have been deeply immersed in a murder that has only grown more controversial the further we've investigated. We've scrutinized the prosecution's case against Julia Beverly and her conviction for the stabbing death of eleven year old Jade Beasley, a child she considered

I think probably what struck me the most, frankly, more than any thing that we may have uncovered or run into.

One of the most impactful interviews for me is one you've yet to hear, one that took place many months after we began our investigation. I'm always exceedingly sensitive comes to questioning miners, which is why, despite interacting with Julia Beverly's eldest son, Jaden since our first trip to Marian, you haven't heard from him until now. It's crucial to recognize the ripple effect of Beverly's conviction on her immediate family, and in Jaden's case, those ripples were more like shock waves.

A lot because I had to move schools, move in with my dad, miss Jade, missed my mom, miss a lot of people. I basically just flipped a lot of things upside down, but it completely flipped upside out every now and then with Mom, always with Dad, I miss a lot of people though, like old friends.

Jaden is a thoughtful, intelligent young man with a slender frame and wide expressive eyes, eyes that, at just fifteen, have witnessed far too much heartbreak. He's endured this sudden loss of Jade, his entire immediate family and the only home he ever knew. And you never got to walk back into your bedroom? No, and how did it alter your relationship with your little sisters?

Well, I didn't get to see him anymore, so I'd say it was more just like as if I one day you stop and left.

I guess his choice of words is interesting given the people who have abandoned him. So would you have considered Mike before this happened as a stepfather or just as your mom's boyfriend? What kind of family life did you guys have?

I'd consider him a stepfather looking back at it.

You may remember this detail Renee High Tower shared from the day of Julia Beverly's arrest.

There was that knock at the door. I came man, and Julie immediately started crying. She had her promise ring from Mike that she immediately took off and handed to me.

That ring now hangs around Jaden's slim neck. Something I didn't realize when I inquired about its significance.

It was a promise ring for Mike and Mom, like a little promise they had between each other, where Grandma gave it to me as like a gift from Mom. It's just really nice to have something from mom. It's like a gift from Mom inside the jail and stuff it stands for, like like I made Mom promise to like stay strong in the jail and I'll stay strong for her and stuff like that. Yeah, it's just really nice to have something between us and stuff, like a promise ring.

She's always near your heart, so that ring means a lot to you. It does.

Yeah, And why don't you bring it to school.

Because I'm more just afraid if it gets lost, someone's gonna take it and I'd rather just keep it by my bad at night.

Just having it with me is pretty comforting.

Now a freshman in high school, there is something heartbreakingly stoic about Jaden. You get the feeling he doesn't ask for much because he's learned not to expect it.

High school has been going well, though it would be a lot better if Jade was here, and stuff and Mom, it's harder for me to comprehend certain things, like for stuff like death.

It's for me, it's it feels harder.

Bob and I were both tremendously impacted by our exchange with Jaden, the fact that that kid wears the ring Mike gave Julie as a promise ring, and now the promise has become that poor little Jaden will stay strong for Julie, and Julie has to stay strong for him.

Yeah, and it rests right above his heart with his Shane that's hanging on, you know, significant And you can tell that it's not just a meetingless momanteau because he was fumbling with it and playing with it the entire time.

It gives him comfort.

And he doesn't bring it to school because he's afraid somebody will steal it.

Yeah, he's a sweet kid.

Renee high Tower's fight for access to her grandchildren was very much fought for Jaden's sake too. Here she is in an interview from July of twenty twenty four.

I've been fighting this for three plus years.

And they will know how hard you fought to be a part of their lives.

And they need to be reacquainted with their brother, who hasn't seen them in just amount of times I have.

Yeah, you know he's being.

Kept from them as well.

Absolutely, I am asking for one day out of a weekend every other weekend, and I wanted to coincide with the days that Jaden is there visiting with me, so he can visit with his siblings and in all.

Guest of twenty twenty four, nearly four years after Jade's murder, Renee and Jaden were reunited with Beverly's three youngest children at a local McDonald's. It was the first time high Tower had ever met the son Beverly gave birth to while in custody of Williamson County. Oh my gosh, what was it like to see Thomas for the first time.

It was amazing and you still feel that connection, even though that's my first time medium, and I thought, well, that's my grandchild, you know, and it was just amazing and just trying to get to know him right there, and it's almost like it instantly takes.

Over from me and what to do.

The girls Beverly and High Tower had last seen as toddlers, were now seven and five years old, were not using their names. How have they changed?

Well, it's like a complete different person because she's got a head full hair now and she's moving around and she's talking and she's you know, the last time I seen her, she was a year and a half and she barely had any little peacha claws on her head, you know, And just to see her all grown up with a little personality, it was just.

I'm sitting there listening to them talk and watching them interact with each other and how they answer my questions, and I can already see Julie and every single one of them.

Before that reunion, Jaden was a bit on edge, unsure of what to expect.

Jaden was getting a little anxious. He couldn't he didn't even eat his food. He ate his French fries while he was waiting. And then once they got there, he couldn't touch the rest of his meal. He said, I'll take it home, so he couldn't finish his food, but wanted to give him a hug immediately, which was really She remembers him.

She remembers him, and she's looking up and she's.

Like, I have a tall baby brother.

Oh it was it was nice.

It was nice.

She wanted to hug him immediately.

That was great.

Renee shared a picture of the kids, the three youngest grinning ear to ear as they clutched the giant squishmellow stuffed animals Nikki sent to mark the occasion. Jaden smiles too, but his carries a weight the others don't. His mother's promise ring hangs prominently over his gaming T shirt, a quiet reminder of her absence. Oh my gosh, they're beautiful,

I have already sent those pictures on the pictures of the kids.

To Julie so.

She can have that.

Yeah, they are priceless.

They are priceless.

Murder on Songbird Road, We'll be back after the break here again is murder on Songbird Road. It is difficult to process what Renee let alone, Jaden, the three youngest children, and Julia Beverly have lost, especially in light of the issues Bob and I have uncovered in this investigation so far.

It's hard to fathom. We're both parents, and we're both very interactive, loving parents, were very involved in our kids' lives, and the concept of having that stripped away with no recourse or no seeming recourse or the recourse that exists could take decades is incredibly, incredibly powerful in terms of trying to wrap your mind around what that might feel like. Would I be sitting in there if I was wrongfully convicted, if I knew that I didn't do this, Would I

You know who I credit for that, Renee, Because Renee has not missed a visit, has not missed a call. Her entire life is dedicated to fixing this.

One hundred percent, and that bolsters her daughter in a way that she desperately needs it.

I used to say, I didn't know what my kryptonite was until I had children, and it's the biggest fear in the world because suddenly your heart is walking around outside your body. And I've always said that, you know, if anybody wanted to destroy me all they have to do is get to my children. That has weighed heavily on me when I process how this tragic ordeal and questionable investigation has impacted a potentially innocent mother. I look

Yeah, Renee has just been a rock, an absolute rock. She just has never faltered.

And then you have the flip side of it as well, which is the loss of Jade and how that has impacted Julia's family as well. But most definitely just the devastation that's caused to Michael Beasley and his family. There's no shortage of victims in this and the fact that this wasn't properly investigated to begin with the additional layers of heartbreak that heaps on top of this tragedy. It's

An autopsy was performed on Sunday, and while we are awaiting the final autopsy report, initial information from the pathologist indicates that Jay Beasley died as a result of blood loss from multiple stab wounds. Numerous search warrants have been issued and evidence collected during the investigation. A lot of evidence has been sent to the Illenwich State Police Crime Lab in Belleville for testing, and we will be awaiting all of those results.

We now know a substantial amount of evidence, seemingly anything that could have supported Beverly's innocence was not tested, but the autopsy also revealed evidence that may have been mishandled, and it involved a towel that was apparently tossed into the body bag used to transport Jade to the morgue. In the autopsy verbatim, a blue beach towel accompanies the body. Renee high Tower was unaware of any such towel until we shared the report with her.

I hadn't seen the autopsy report, so I didn't even know anything about that, and I have not seen the crime.

Scene photos because I wasn't allowed in court.

She then questioned Beverly as to whether she recalled seeing that towel at any point.

I was talking to her about the autopsy reports and I said that there was a towel in the body bag with Jade.

She asked, was it a beach towel?

And I said, I think that's what it stated in there, And that's when she said that she's seen that towel in the pictures, in the crime scene photos on the floor in the bathroom. She said, the thing about it, it looked like it was used to clean up with, like someone clean themselves off from blood. So she said it didn't look like it was laying on the floor and got blood on it, like everything else, did you

I don't understand that at all.

When reading through the autopsy report, former Kentucky crime scene investigator Katie Hartman, who worked in law enforcement for over two decades, was also a bit baffled by the presence of the beach towel within the body bag.

Correct if I'm wrong. You said that they said the towel was on the floor of the bag, Yes, yep. Do you think maybe when they pulled her out of the tub that they included it in there? Maybe because she landed on top of it.

I don't know.

See, that's what I'm saying.

I'm trying to be good advocate here and think of ways that it could have occurred. A med unit who's not in forensics could have picked it up and thrown it in the body bag with her, But still that towel should have still been collected. I've had things put in body bags by med units that I had to collect even though they really had nothing to do with it. So I can only tell you what I would have done if I was at the scene. The blue towel would have been collected separately.

Not with the body.

Never I would You don't throw things in the body bag.

This blue towel was saturated with blood. So could it have been something that Jade had used to try to stop the blood or.

Would it have been someone who did it trying to stop their blood from their own wounds? Because it's with this many sad wounds, it's not one hundred percent, but it's pretty common for the assailants to cook themselves, you know, with their hands slipping down. I'm looking at the evidence. They did say the clothing that says here a beach towel. Yep, Now could that be.

The blue towel?

That's the blue towel?

Okay, So at least it was collected.

Which conceivably means the towel, along with many other things like Beverly's clothing, her nail scrapings, and Jade's electronics, could have been and could still be tested. Here's Bob's take.

It's unbelievable. I've said that word.

I don't know how many episodes that I've listened to during this world saying that something's unbelievable or unfathomable. But every time I say it, I'm here to tell you I mean it to me. To have that particular piece of evidence jammed in the body bag is beyond comprehension. I just don't understand what person that was at that crime scene that thought that that was the right thing to do. I have never processed the crime scene. I've never done it.

But you know what I wouldn't do is I wouldn't jam a bloody towel that was found in the same room the victim was killed, at least theoretically, into a body bag that was with that victim and then transported to wherever she was transported. It's it's crazy.

What else is crazy? The amount of time it took for the then forensic pathologists to turn around Jade Beasley's autopsy. Here's Renee high Tower.

The scene was asking for discovery and that took a while in itself as well, and then going through the discovery, she's seen that the autopsy was not in there. Scene had to file emotion to compel.

So while the autopsy was performed the day after the murder on December sixth, twenty twenty. It wasn't completed and filed for another fourteen months on February fourth, twenty twenty two, so it took over a year to turn around the autopsy. Yes, did you ever get any reason as to why.

I did not?

And whatever happened to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy.

From what scene was telling me she was moving on to a new career to be an attorney.

So another person who has either retired or changed careers. Yes, it's really interesting because there's no hypothesis as to how tall the assailant would have been, or the trajectory of the stab wounds or anything.

Right, she couldn't tell the order of the wounds, nothing. It's like she could tell how she died and that was it. No time of death, no order the wounds, no type of weapon explaining to nothing, no heights of the assailant.

Nothing interesting. Murder on Songbird Road will return after the break back to Murder on Songbird Road now, going back to another line from the press conference with the then Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Sonati.

When the incident occurred. The suspect gave law enforcement an initial report that the unidentified mail ran from the residence upon her arriving home. She said that she left the residence with Jade alone in the home for a short time and return home to find an unidentified male fleeing. The investigation has proven this story to be false.

Given the investigation had lasted all of four days at this point, it's interesting to note numerous knife related crimes happened before and after Jade's murder and Beverly's arrest. Williamson County deputies responded to a call yesterday on Napoleon Lane.

They found a woman with severe last rations to her neck, shoulder, and hands.

A Chester man is in police custody tonight after officials say he stabbed a person in Christopher early yesterday morning.

Well May I suspected the stabbing someone in Carbondell, now behind bars police. A forty two year old aggressively approached a woman at Arrowhead Lake this afternoon, wrapped his arms around her, told her to be quiet, and that he had a knife.

In Episode three, I mentioned this exchange, which took place at the scene of the murder, as one that would come back to haunt us.

I mean, this is rural. We're in farmland here, there's no question about it. So if we're looking at Sombird Road, we're not close to any kind of main thoroughfare. So like the concept of somebody walking back here seems remote to me.

You're not getting like casual foot traffic or somebody who is zero chains to rob because they think that there is something of great value.

Yeah, and the zero chance of somebody just wandering around back.

Here this exchange, also from the same initial visit would do more than haunt us. It would end up serving as a premonition of sorts. Yeah, And unfortunately this is not the kind of neighborhood where you would have ring cameras or no way. Yeah, hindsight is sometimes twenty twenty and sometimes it comes with receipts. At the end of August twenty twenty four, Bob and I were back and Marion again knocking on doors on or around Songbird Road.

Corey Lee grow all right, so am I going this way?

Yeah?

How we get to the.

Yep, that's songbird. This is exciting now since I'm the female who called them, do you want to be the one who walks up to the door.

Sure, I'm gonna lose the shade.

So I think that's a good idea. Mata and sunglasses definitely leans towards a law enforcement state trooper vibe.

It's this house.

Where is the right?

It's here?

Okay, all right, lose the glasses. So it is a one floor trailer modular. He's walking up. I would have walked up on this one, but I actually called and they were not too happy to speak with me. He's knocking, he's waiting. There's a car in the driveway, so yeah, they may have seen us on the property up the doors opening. Gentleman's out of shirt just answered, let's see what Bob's got while they're talking, which is good. Up

Knocking, and he kept kind of like he was had both hands on either side of the door, and he kept going like this, you know, not banging his set on the door, just making emotion and just talking and jibber jabbering and talking like he was talking into the door, and he wasn't talking to nobody, you know, because I was too afraid to answer the door, and I was looking out the window, and then the camera was videotaping him, and he just kept knocking and knocking and waiting, and I was an answering.

So a shirtless guy, and he looked like he was under the influence of drugs or mental health.

Was yeah, he just he didn't look like he was.

All with it.

They were able to observe it.

Unfortunately.

Do you remember what he looked like? About how tall he would have been.

He's probably a little taller than me. I'm five to three.

I stayed five to five something like that, kind of.

Shaved head, kind of like, yeah.

You say he was the twenties, thirties.

Maybe probably thirties, early thirties, early to mid thirties.

Yeah, what kind of build?

Medium build?

Yeah, medium build, yeah my size. Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting.

That it scared me really bad. So, I mean, I didn't really know what to do about it. We didn't really call the sharp or nothing, because.

He just left after that. You know, I didn't know what to do.

But yeah, that's interesting.

So he did not and never seen him since since.

I've every time we leave or go somewhere, I always look out because I would somewhat remember his face, you know, But I haven't seen him since.

He definitely looked to be on drug any I'm ashamed of it, but I was a former of Matthews with myself, and I know a lot of the characteristics of Matthews, and thank Jesus, he'd got me a work on it.

You know, we were standing on a porch that directly bordered the property where Jade Beasley was murdered, speaking to people who'd bought the house just four days after her murder, on the very day that Julie Beverly was arrested.

We've purchased the house the ninth of December and moved in shortly after that the tenth.

Yeah, did anybody ever come and talk to you about what happened?

No, we didn't even know anything about it. I just seen the signing anything.

Yeah, did you call the police after someone came to your door?

No?

No, she was just herself and you know, she was too scared to probably and it didn't really know that.

He didn't do anything, so he left.

Knocked on the door.

Yeah, he only knocked on the door, So it wasn't like he damaged anything or banged on the door recklessly or you know, he just kept knocking you know, so.

Acting violent, but he was acting very very strange.

Yeah.

Have any of the neighbors told you about the family that lived there or anything.

That had happened.

Yes, the neighbors told us.

Plus we looked it up, you.

Know, I looked it up online to see.

What was about it. It was very, very tragic, and it was like, you know, don't.

Worried that it might be even more tragic than.

We bought the place.

We found out about it because.

Beverly was arrested so soon after the murder. No officers, no detectives, no official anyone ever interacted with the new homeowners about the brutal murder that occurred next door less than a week before they moved in, which is why they didn't think to contact anyone when just weeks later, on February eighth, twenty twenty one, a shirtless, strung out man matching the basic description Beverly gave of her alleged intruder, appeared on their porch and started pounding on their door.

Particularly around Yes, it is. He was killing people, killing people, and it's an absolute epidemic.

So was she still had that video because that matches the description of the man that Julie Beverly says, you know what I mean?

Yeah, like you and I aren't tall men, but like five five five six is a short man, right, you know what.

I really wish we knew something about.

It has been very helpful and I'm very thankful for you folks allowing us to int sure. Absolutely absolutely, we're happy you were willing to talk to us.

Yeah, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and honestly, it can be very very useful. As we continued to talk, the wife excused herself, going inside briefly before returning. When she did, she was holding an iPad and on that iPad was the video of the interaction and the man she just described, Oh my gosh, you have it. Hello, Oh my gosh, he has tattoos, he would be identifiable.

Hello, I have a question.

And he said, oh my god, I remembered I emailed it to him.

Yeah, just remembered it. Oh my gosh.

May I give you my email? Could you forward that to me?

Yeah, oh my gosh.

That's like, yeah, I don't even know. See, that's why, like, that's why we're knocking on all the new Ones.

In the video, a shirtless man clad in dark jeans and obviously under the influence of serious drugs and or mental illness, walks onto the porch, speaking to himself as he appears to be working himself up to knock on the door. I have question, Hello, Hello, He seems troubled, wrestling with an internal conflict. He vocalizes as he paces.

I have not been here in thirty years and more.

His right foot swivels out after each knock, as if attached by some sort of invisible string to his right fist as he knocks. Then he scratches his tattoo covered upper left arm as he says this. He then raises both hands up as if responding to drawn weapons as he leaves the porch, exiting down the stairs and walking towards Beverly's former home as he mumbles, I heard after exchanging emails and contact info, Bob and I returned to the car our mind's racing. Oh my god, Oh.

My god, wow, Okay, holy moly, that was something else that's huge.

It was February eighth, she said, February eighth, but still he said, I haven't been here for thirty years. Is what he said he has tattoos that are identifiables.

Shirtless in February.

Do we tell Renee?

I think I think we tell Renee.

I mean that's incredible.

Hold On, let me pull over because I got you on speaker with the boys. Okay, hold on, give me one second.

Okay, okay. So we did some knocking on doors. I spoke to Butch's sister. I left my information, but she didn't want to talk. Then we spoke to the backyard neighbor, who suggested we go to the bar. We thought we were at the house, but we were at the house to the right, and they answered the door, and the gentleman spoke to Bob.

Very nice, very nice folks, and you know, I just start shooting the shit, telling him a little bit about what we're doing. And you know, it turns out that he bought right right after five days after the thing happens, and you know, but I'm still I'm plugging away, right And then then he tells me, oh, yeah, I heard it had something to do with meth. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm like, okay, where'd you hear that?

Yeah?

He's like oh, He's like, I don't know I just heard it around. I'm like, well, I'm like, it's it's funny. They say that, you know, we're kind of looking into that angle a little bit. And so as we're progressing, his wife comes up to the door and they tell me a story.

They bought the house the ninth of December twenty twenty, so four days after this all happened, and they have a ring camera. And on February eighth, a man who matches the height and build of the gentleman that Julie says she encountered coming out of her house is banging on their door. And keep in mind, when we spoke to Julie, she said, no, this guy was like five six. Guess how tall this guy was kind shakes yep, and the same kind of build, but this time he's not

You yep.

On the next and for now final episode of Murder on Songbird Road, our long investigation leads to shifting presumptions.

Yeah, I don't get while you can prosecute or have a prosecution without and I'll ask you for.

And changing viewpoints.

After listening to the podcast, I've definitely got a different perspective of reasonable doubt.

As Beverly's appeal finds its way to a panel of judges.

It's just sad to kind of realize, all these years later that you know, we may have been misled.

Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound design and original music by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chackoine. Additional music by Asher Kurtz. Archival elements courtesy of WSIL News three. Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review. Wherever you're listening.